Last October, the Social Fund launched a pilot project for comprehensive rehabilitation of victims of severe industrial incidents. It is built around on inter-departmental cooperation between Social Fund offices, prosthetics and orthopedy manufacturers, medical and social assessment institutions and public employment services at the Social Fund's rehabilitation centers.
The project made the application process significantly easier for the patients. Victims of workplace incidents no longer have to visit medical institutions and prosthetics manufacturers in person to collect assessments and referrals for medical and social assessment. They can get all the required documents from one place: the Social Fund's rehabilitation center. That saves their time, reduces the bureaucracy load and lets them focus on what's really important, i.e. restoring their health.
936 patients were referred to the Social Fund's rehabilitation centers in the time of the pilot project; 419 have already been examined in those centers. Medical and social assessment commissions evaluated their health and designed rehabilitation programs for 410 temporary disabled victims.
Another important innovation is medtech commissions that issue opinions and recommendation on technical means of rehabilitation. That is extremely important, since some patients may have counterindications for prosthetics. At rehabilitation centers, they strive to find the best solutions so that every patient gets the necessary care and opportunity for recovery.
The third support measure is employment service officials visits to rehabilitation centers. 438 victims have already received their advice. Employment service officials help determine if the victims need training or retraining and give recommendations on their employment. That is important to bring them back into the workforce and help them adapt after their injuries.
The Fund's cooperation with organizations involved in the rehabilitation process helps improve the rehabilitation quality and assist a greater number of workplace incident victims. Preliminary data suggests that 90% of victims who have undergone rehabilitation at the Social Fund's centers, return to the workforce. 6% of them find a new employment.